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Re: Possible breeding Swainson's Warblers in Henderson County



In adjacent Polk county, I have observed Swainson's
along the Green River (down the mountain from Saluda,
NC) for many years.  The publicly accessible area is
upstream from the 'Fish Top' access area on Green
River Road -- take the trails upstream along the river
from the Fish Top parking lot (owned by Duke Power but
open to public).  Louisiana Waterthrushes and BT Green
Warblers are there too.

Sadly there are a lot more crowds (especially summer
weekends) of inner tubers, drunk canoists and other
noisy littering humans than when my family started
taking me on sedate tubing trips there in the early
70s.  However the crowds occur more downstream from
Fish Top and don't present much problem before 11:00am
(when birding is best).


Nathan Dias - Charleston, SC

--- mjwestphal <mjwestphal@unca.edu> wrote:
> I have been curious about the potential for breeding
> Swainson?s Warblers in
> Henderson County for some time, but have always
> found it difficult to find the
> time to explore.  This year I made time.  Swainson?s
> are found most frequently
> in the mountains on the Atlantic side of the eastern
> continental divide along
> the Blue Ridge escarpment. The Green River watershed
> fit that bill, so Peggy
> Franklin and I went out exploring for potential
> habitat a few weeks ago.  We
> found the Green River headwaters to be perfect as it
> had plenty of rushing
> water with thick masses of rhododendron along
> streams in forested land.  This
> area was in Peggy?s migration count section and,
> sure enough, she found three
> singing Swainson?s Warblers.  I also visited the
> area early yesterday morning
> and found two singing Swainson?s.
> 
> The area of interest is along Green River Rd, which
> begins near Tuxedo off NC
> 25 and runs along the southern edge of Henderson
> County and goes west into
> Transylvania County at Cedar Mountain.  The
> Swainson?s were in the section of
> forested gravel road in the area where there are a
> few bridges crossing over
> the river and the Swainson?s were not far from the
> road.  This is private land
> that is heavily posted, so you can?t leave the road.
>  Other birds singing in
> this forest were Wood Thrushes, Red-eyed and
> Blue-headed Vireos, Ovenbird, La
> Waterthrush, N. Parula, BT Green, B&W, Hooded, and
> Worm-eating Warblers.
> 
> There may be other sections of this watershed that
> have suitable habitat and
> Swainson?s Warblers but, as always, my exploring
> time is limited.  Maybe
> others will have time to check it out.
> Marilyn
> 
> Marilyn Westphal
> Environmental Quality Institute
> University of North Carolina-Asheville
> One University Heights
> Asheville, NC  28804
> 828/251-6823
> mjwestphal@unca.edu
> 
> =


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